With Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron preparing to leave Brown, the search for her successor prompts a discussion of which priorities the University should emphasize in the coming years. As the strategic planning process unfolds this coming semester and year, we encourage the University to choose a leader who will maintain focus on Brown’s historical strengths: undergraduate education and the liberal arts.
Online education, one of Bergeron’s major focuses this past year, exemplifies this need. Though technological advancement may appear inevitable, the University must not lose sight of its fundamental ideals simply to keep up with the times — or even in the name of pioneering new platforms for higher education. Bergeron has emerged as a prominent advocate of using Coursera, a massive open online course program. While we value the opportunity for anyone to learn in the convenient and innovative manner Coursera affords, we hope Brown’s use of the platform does not reach a level where overall academic integrity and legitimacy is compromised by the convenience of widespread accessibility and potential pressures of falling behind other elite universities.
If the University is to maintain its focus on enhancing the undergraduate experience, it must form a solid footing on what needs to be kept — or changed — under the new dean. Bergeron’s vocal support for the sciences, despite her background in music, has enhanced the Brown education, and such emphasis should be continued.
But recent controversies such as the recently implemented writing requirement illuminate the need for a healthy understanding and appreciation of Brown’s academic philosophy. While the study of writing is certainly vital, its requirement’s very implementation necessarily re-interprets Brown’s esteemed ideals of “chart(ing) the broadest possible intellectual journey” and “directing the course” of our own educations. With careful navigation, the University should continue to align its unique liberal reputation with the rapidly shifting culture and politics of higher education.
Despite our unique backgrounds and experiences, Brown students form a coherent community in which open exchange of ideas, visions and arguments form the crux of our overall education. Though we can boast to our friends at other schools about our lack of a core curriculum, it is precisely through the Brown curriculum’s intellectual openness and freedom that we can develop our respective “moral cores”: personal standards and values which we each glean from academic exploration. In the upcoming months, the University will prepare for the inevitable restructuring that will accompany the arrival of the new dean and the unfolding of Paxson’s agenda. Throughout this process, understanding and maintaining Brown’s core principles is essential.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Daniel Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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